The Anthropocene as Media

Abstract

A principal result of the Industrial Revolution and subsequent technological development is the evolution of a planet where the dynamics of major natural systems are increasingly affected by human activity. This anthropogenic Earth is increasingly shaped not just by energy and material flows, the traditional concerns of environmentalists, but by information structures and cultural systems that begin to play out in complex ways across global systems. The combination of these information systems with accelerating technological evolution creates relationships and patterns that are not only difficult to perceive, but that are challenging in their complexity, and leads to profound questions about how best to construct an ethical, rational, and responsible world.